Well, today I tried to expand my range of allergy-compatible cakes by baking an egg-free cake. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to properly account for the lack of egg, and the cake didn't rise. Well, it rose for about 5 minutes in the oven before it exploded and collapsed back into the base of the tin. As I was scraping the remains out of the tin and wondering whether to throw the other half of the mixture (my college oven can handle only one half of a cake at a time), I tried a crumbling, flaking bit of the residue (which was unable to hold itself together, at all). It was gorgeous! I had, as many before me also had, discovered Accidental Brownies. I'm now going to get very fat, as I've already eaten one entire half; the other is waiting downstairs (although that is a little overcooked, so I'll have to leave it to soften before eating it).

Last week I got a telephone call from Opodo regarding my Summit flight in March, asking me to call back on "0871 277 9852" regarding my schedule change. This is also the number listed at the bottom of my schedule change confirmation received by email. I finally got around to calling back today, and calling that number puts you straight into a recorded loop saying how brilliant Opodo is.

Then, after a while of that, the message switches to an Expedia message, saying that the number is out of service and to ring a different (0870) number instead. So I ring that (naively thinking that Opodo and Expedia have merged, or somesuch), and after an age of waiting on hold, manage to talk to a human (or at least a Glaswegian).

She asks for an itinerary number (which I do not have, only having a Booking Reference, Ticket Number, and various other numbers not calling themselves an itinerary number). She offers to search for my email, which she cannot find. Neither can she find my name on the system. I ask whether this is Opodo, Expedia, or what. She says it's Expedia, and talks to her supervisor. After another while on hold (more cheesy muzak), she comes back and informs me that it's definitely Expedia, and Opodo is a competitor, and that they have been receiving a high volume of calls asking for Opodo, but don't know why (despite the fact that I've already told her that it is because an Opodo number is calling itself Expedia and asking people to ring Expedia).

So now I have no idea what to do. I can't remember my account settings (why does every single website have different requirements for lengths and allowed characters for usernames and passswords?!) for the online website, so can't check my details there. I guess I'll have to ring the main line and try to get put through to somewhere.

. I hate phones.

If anyone else has had this problem, feel free to comment. I'll update with a solution if I find one.

After much fretting, I finally decided to risk booting from CD to install the 8355H BIOS. After much waiting whilst the machine hummed and harred with unreadable error messages, the screen turned blue (with gibberish) - the colour of the flash program. A progress bar counted down backwards in red, then faster in green (indicating that the update was a success), and the machine powered itself off. Restarting, it started fine!

Unfortunately, now I get a "PREVIEW VERSION - NOT FOR RESALE" message and a date flashing on the POST screen every time I boot, and the new BIOS still didn't allow Vista to progress past its ACPI BSOD.

For those of you who want to know how to flash a BIOS using a boot CD without touching a floppy drive, there is a basic tutorial here. Instead of using the floppy image provided, download a basic Win98SE floppy image from here, and add the BIOS flash utility and the new BIOS image using WinImage. Then use the tutorial linked above to burn using Nero, selecting the floppy image file you've created instead of using the floppy drive. If you want to be fancy, you can replace the default autoexec.bat with a new one that automagically runs the BIOS flash.

To those of you who are getting the same problems as me attempting to install Vista on a laptop, I'm sorry that I don't have a solution (save trying the x86 version instead - worked for me during Beta 2). I've reported the problem to MS and am waiting for a response.

To those of you who visit the site to access the VBSmart Mirror formerly hosted here, please accept my apologies. Andres Pons, the original creator of vbsmart.com, emailed me and bluntly asked me to remove the site. I reluctantly obliged.

I was trying to install Vista RC1 x64 last night, but was getting an error before setup even began about a missing ACPI controller. After some research the problem appeared to be solvable by a new system BIOS. So this morning I head over to the Novatech Forum and see that my machine (Crossfire 3400) is actually a MiTAC, and BIOS updates can be found there.

Happily, I visit the MiTAC site. I locate updates for both the system and the kbc BIOS, and after a little bit of Google, instructions on how to install both. I download these and the flashing tools, and (lacking a floppy drive) use Nero to make a DOS boot CD that will run them. I boot to this.

Installing the KBC BIOS is a breeze (if a little surreal, with little smiley faces filling up a progress bar, and the notebook then switching itself off with NO lights - not even the battery status. In addition, whilst flashing, the mother of all fans that I have never heard before kicked in. The machine sounded like a jet engine. I boot the machine back into Windows (XP x86 SP2), just to check that nothing was borked, then go back to the boot CD to install the system BIOS.

I type the requested instructions, and the BIOS flasher appears, does its job, then verifies and shows the green text to show that the update was successfully installed. Little did I know that that would be the last coherent text my notebook displayed. THe machine shut itself down, and upon pressing the power button again, I see scrolling vertical lines of gibberish (rather reminiscent of The Matrix, but in white rather than green). After a short length I see what looks like the prompt for my BIOS password (yes, I'm paranoid). Thinking if I can get past this screen, I might be able to make some progress, I type in my password and press return, and the machine even beeps to say it's accepted, but then I see (hidden behind the garbage lines) what looks like DOS error messages. No beef.

It turns out from the Forum that my machine is in fact a MiTAC 8355H. The only difference is the graphics card, but apparently that necessitates a different driver (in stark contrast to desktop machines, where you can use whatever the hell AGP or PCI-E graphics card you like and still use the same driver).

MiTAC service have yet to get back to me, but let this serve as a warning to all Novatech Crossfire users: do not install the O1.09 system bios flash for the MiTAC 8355 unless you fancy hosing your machine. The 1.09 BIOS for the 8355H might be worth a try, but I wouldn't put money on it, as I haven't tried it myself.

As if that wasn't enough, by that point in the morning I'd already acquired a bitchin' headache within a quarter of an hour of getting up, and I spent the first hour of work this afternoon re-shelving books to accommodate someone else's flagrant shelving error.

And to top it off, the Novatech forums are censoring the word "Bugger", making it look like I'm being profane when I'm just being mildly vulgar.

Today is definitely not my day. I hope it's yours.

I've just added a tutorial on setting the Mail Merge Batch Size for Publisher 2002 - 2007. It can be found here.

Screenshots will follow once I get them taken.

Edit: Screenshots have now been added. Enjoy!

Well, I finally got my computer back from Novatech today, about a week after they said I should. They've replaced the hard drive, and not charged me for the shipping materials used to return it (yay), and also refitted the Alt key (or possibly fitted a new one - but they haven't replaced the keyboard, as all my crumbs are still in there. I should probably work out a way of getting rid of those.).

Much has been happening since I last blogged (I decided not to blog until I got my computer back, hence the long updateless period).

June 10th was my birthday (thanks to all who remembered), and a few of us went to G&D's in the evening to have a G&D's cake kindly purchased (mail order, the first time anyone has done so from them!) by my parents. We only managed half between four of us, so I took it back and dropped in on Bev 9/10 to offer it round. It went down rather well. Then sipped fresh elderflower cordial (mmm) and subsequently went for a random walk around North Oxford.

The cake itself was something else. It consisted of a thick layer of brownie at the bottom (the same mixture used to make G&D's regular brownies), with three thick layers of ice cream on top, one on top of the other, with random sweets on the very top. It was over a foot in diameter, and about six inches high. G&D's suggest that it serves 6 - 8, and that's a generous (unusual for a serving suggestion to be so on the generous side) estimate - like I said, half the cake stuffed four of us. I'd say a minimum of 8 adults to tackle the whole cake is a good idea. I initially tried to hack my way through the cake with a regular knife; but after one incision taking five minutes, Allan offered to go and get a bigger knife. He returned with a much more suitable knife, but that still made me look pitiful, so the dude behind the counter came out with the Uber Knife of Doom. That still wouldn't go through it, even with his beefy arms and body behind it, so he went and got a mug of steaming water to dip it in (hot metal cuts through ice cream better, if you hadn't worked that out). Even then, it took him another few minutes to get four pieces cut out. As payback, he made me stand on a chair and have Happy Birthday sung to me by the entire shop. How embarrassing!

The short option paper on Tuesday of 8th was far more pleasant than the other prelims, and now I've had the marks, it is reflected there. Surprisingly, though, I did manage a Distinction and a rather consistent set of marks (all in the 70 - 74 range apart from the short option, which was 40/50).

Wednesday of 8th was my trip to London to see Sarah and Parliament. Parliament could have been better (we were too late to see Prime Minister's Questions, and the debates on offer in both Houses were rather uninspiring and devoid of participants), but that was more than made up for by the wonderful company I had.

Thursday of 8th was Physics Punting. Everyone had a turn, no one was terrible (although Phil did manage to get us stuck on a submerged tree, I think he made up for it with his speedy sailing elsewhere), and lunch at the pub up the river was excellent. Allan unfortunately had revision to do and Emma was nowhere to be found, so it wasn't a complete gathering of the physicists.

Friday was primarily spent Not Packing. I'll update if I work out what I actually did.

And then Saturday of 8th came and I had to go home.

Since then, I've written an application for MVP Andrew Z Carpenter, which I am considering retailing to server admins. More on that in another entry. I've also backed up as much as I could of my old hard drive to my new SATA drive, sent off the computer to Novatech, waited (as I detailed above) and received it back. As brother has yet to vacate his computer, I can't boot it into Linux to restore the data yet (I had to run a Linux LiveCD to do the data recovery, and so it was easier to run Linux on my brother's computer, too, as I could use an SCP server. Also, Windows was having trouble seeing the SATA drive, whereas Knoppix saw it straight away. Both of which mean that the drive is formatted with Ext2, which Windows can't read (at least not without more work than it would be to just reboot into Knoppix)).

I've also discovered a taste for Linux. Although it's not going to completely replace Windows for the time being, I've come to appreciate some aspects of it, and so have reserved 13GB on my new (Fujitsu this time, rather than Toshiba) laptop HD for an Ubuntu installation. The rest of the space is being divided up between Windows XP (for when I need stability) and Windows Vista Beta 2 built 5456 (a newer release than the Public  Beta, for testing purposes and because it's so cool). Unfortunately I'm running Vista x86, as the x64 built refused to install, giving a boot loader error after setup copied the initial files. 15GB to XP, 12GB to Vista, and the rest of the space in a shared data partition (for program installation and documents).

I think that's all I've got to say. Oh, and to the person who arrived here Googling for 'head crash', I'd suggest using a secondary computer to create a Knoppix LiveCD, then boot onto that on the damaged machine, and then copy out all the data that's recoverable. And then either replace the drive, or if the machine's under warranty, send it back and get it replaced for free. If the machine is a desktop and you have another desktop available, then you could instead slave the damaged drive into the working machine, although I'd still recommend using a Linux LiveCD for the recovery (and at all times whilst the drive is in there), as it's less sloppy about what it does with installed drives.

OK, I'll shut up now.

P.S. Opera 9 is out! If you run Windows, I highly recommend switching or upgrading. I've noticed quite a few users, for some reason, are still running Opera 6 and 7. If you disagree, feel free to let me know why you aren't moving up.

Just a quick post to show off my 8-tier tower. I ran out of Diet Pepsi cans, so the third tier from the top is not quite symmetric, unfortunately. You can barely see that from this angle, though...

(Oh, and I've just noticed that the bottom tier is not quite perfect; some modification will be done later!)

Doctor Who in 20 minutes, followed by G&D's for ice cream cake. The weather is scorching, and apparently England won the football. (I'm grudgingly supporting them, seeing as Wales didn't manage to qualify.) Does life get any better?

Well, I tried to blog this last night, but DasBlog decided to time my session out and not let me use the Back button to take a copy of my entry.

I've finished compulsory exams - have one short option paper on Tuesday left. They didn't go as well as the past papers I was doing would have implied they would have. Damn examiners!

Now I'll attempt to answer questions Google users have been asking me by means of my referrer entries:

• Referrerspam doesn't work on this site. The only person that sees it is me, and I ignore it.
• This site does not contain the Wycliffe theme music, any MIDI files, or the Worms Armageddon theme music. Keep Googling, you'll find it eventually.
• I have no idea what happens if you drink too much Pepsi. I just know that I do.
• I have no pictures of individual Pepsi cans on here, only towers.
• "Lightning" is spelled "lightning". Lightning is an electrostatic phenomenon appearing as a forked flash of light, normally accompanied by thunder. Lightening is what happens when soemthing is lightened; when adding white paint to blue paint, you are lightening the blue paint. The two similar words can be used for amusing or poignant wordplay, as is done by Lazlo Zalezac.
• There are no tutorials on dasBlog on this site. Check the dasBlog website and fiddle with the settings files - that's what I did.
• If the same person as compained about diary-esque blogs on OxGoss is the one who found this blog by a search for OxGoss a while back, I don't care. I'm not forcing you to read my ramblings; if you don't want to read about my boring life, then don't bother visiting my website. I write for me, not for you.
• I don't think Diet Pepsi causes cancer; a recent independent study (not sponsored by soft drinks companies and acclaimed by consumer groups for its impartiality) showed no link between drinking beverages containing aspartame and cancer.
• Edit: To whomever Googled "abbreviation of someone who doesnt want something happening near there home" (should be their, not there, silly billy; and for some reason, I'm #2 in a search for that), I believe the acronym you're looking for is "NIMBY", short for "Not In My Back Yard".
• Edit2: To whomever Googled "zero wing band", email me. I might be able to help you ^_^
  

Wow, I'm #1 on a Google search for "I am Farscape" (with quotes); on the 7th page of MSN search results for 'Johnnny English' (no quotes); and bizarrely #1 for 'utc facebook registry' (no quotes - although why someone would search for that is beyond me!).

My lappy is out of action, so I have to satisfy all my computing needs in the JCR. The problem appears to be a head crash on my hard drive, although I can't affirmatively diagnose the clicking as the click of death, as I don't have a computer with sound facilities on which to listen to the sound clips. I'm leaving it well alone until I have a machine with which I can recover all the data I can to a new drive, and will then send the machine back to Novatech for the drive to be replaced under warranty. And if they don't do that, I shall be most annoyed.